You can even use Element from a web browser. Like Telegram, you can use Element on multiple devices - computers, smartphones and tablets - at the same time, your messages sync seamlessly among them. In case you have forgotten your password and you have not associated an email with your account, you won’t be able to reclaim your account. You can also choose, for each email and phone number you registered, if you want to be discoverable by them.īesides that, having an email associated with your account allows you to reset your password if you forget it. People can find each other on Element by their username. You create a username during registration, so you can keep your personal information confidential, if you prefer. You can have as many email addresses and phone numbers associated with your account as you like - including none. Optionally, you can later associate your account with a phone number. You need an email address to register at, but you can disassociate it from your account later, if you want (what is not recommended by Element). Talking about the Element app, beyond its federated nature, it has most of the features you find in common messengers: it allows you to send text messages, photos, videos and files, in one-to-one or group chats, in addition to make voice and video calls.Įlement features end-to-end encryption, but it’s not enabled by default: you need to enable it manually for each chat by going to the chat settings. Talking about the Element company, its revenue comes from two sources: Element Matrix Services - a hosting platform for Element (and other Matrix-based) messaging and collaboration deployments - and consulting services - large organisations often need specialist knowledge and support for such huge deployments. They created Element to bring Matrix to the mainstream. Some of the founders of this company are also the founders of the Foundation. In the past, the app was called Riot and the company, New Vector. There are many Matrix clients available, Element being one of them.Įlement is a free app developed by the for-profit company of the same name that makes flagship products and services on top of the Matrix standard. For instance, is a public Matrix server provided by the Foundation for free for anyone to use. You can send messages among users of the same Matrix server, as well as users of other Matrix servers. The Matrix open stardard allows you to host your own Matrix server or use a public one, either free or paid, hosted by someone else. The Matrix protocol is maintained by the UK-based non-profit Foundation, which also provides open source reference implementations of Matrix-compatible servers and client SDKs. It can be used for instant messaging, VoIP/WebRTC calling, Internet of Things communication - or anything that needs a standard way for publishing and subscribing to data whilst tracking the conversation history. Like email, Matrix is a protocol: an open standard for interoperable, secure, decentralized, real-time communication over IP. Besides that, when sending an email, you don’t have to care what app the receiver is using: both of you may be using a webmail or an email client app such as Thunderbird or Evolution. In this case, the Gmail server sends your message to the Hotmail server, which in its turn delivers your message to the receiver. But you can also send an email to a Hotmail user. When you do that, your message does not leave the Gmail server, which simply copies your message to the receiver’s inbox. You can send an email to another Gmail user. For example, let’s suppose you have a Gmail account. But also they are decentralized in a different way from Session: they are built on the idea of federation.Īs much about Element is actually about Matrix, we are going to analyze both here.įederated systems use multiple, independent servers that are able to talk to each other.Įmail can be seen as a federated service. Different from other more common messengers, such as WhatsApp, Telegram or Signal, which are centralized, Element and Matrix are decentralized, like Session. Element is a messaging app that is the reference client for the Matrix network.
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